If Canada takes a page from Finland’s approach at the world junior a year ago, Benoit Groulx won’t have a problem with that.

“A team that is relentless, a team that is all in, a team that is tough to play against, that type of team,” Groulx, Canada’s head coach, said as Canada’s summer camp got underway with two practices on Sunday night at the Bell Sports Complex.

“We know how to play the game, and it’s up to us to bring that game back on the ice.”

Emulate the Finns? Surely, Groulx is joking. After all, Canadian teens set the pace at the world junior year after year.

Time was, that was true. But certainly not in the past half decade, with Canada failing to win gold since 2009 in Ottawa. Finland took the top medal last winter in Malmo, Sweden, and for Groulx, the path to gold for the Finns trailed back to Canada.

“I really feel they were copying us in the past,” Groulx said of other nations at the under-20 level in general. “The way Finland won the gold last year was the Canadian way. We have to go back to that. It’s exactly what has to start (during the camp and exhibition tournament this week).”

The challenges for Groulx and his coaching staff are many. Not quite five months before Canada opens the 2015 world junior in Montreal against Slovakia, Groulx doesn’t have a firm grasp on the players he will have in the lineup on Dec. 26. That’s the way it is when teens such as Aaron Ekblad and Sam Reinhart, among others, could be playing for their respective NHL teams once training camps conclude.

And the spotlight’s glare that will come with playing on home soil while simultaneously trying to right a five-year wrong? The championship shifts to Toronto for the medal round when the round-robin round concludes.

“We’re in our country, the top two cities maybe in the world top play hockey, the fans are going to be behind us,” Groulx said. “You know what? If you have pressure, it’s because you have a chance to win.

“When people don’t expect you to win, you don’t have any pressure. It’s more about embracing the tournament, embracing the situation.”

One sure thing is forward Connor McDavid, who can’t help but look ahead at the 2015 NHL draft just about every time he is interviewed. Of the many subplots that will be part of the tournament this winter, few will garner the kind of attention that McDavid and U.S. forward Jack Eichel, another top-end prospect, will bring.

A year ago, McDavid found the summer camp somewhat overwhelming, as the physical play opened his eyes. A year later, and after he was part of the Canadian side that was fourth in Sweden, McDavid has grown a couple of inches and figured he’s around 190 pounds, approximately 15 more than he was carrying in the summer of 2013.

“I’m bigger and thicker, so it’s a good step,” McDavid said. “I know there are going to be comparisons (with Eichel) all year long. It’s okay. I’ve been dealing with it for two years now, the pressure and the hype and the media. It’s easy to just go out and shut your mind off.”

McDavid, despite being just 17, wants to be a leader on Groulx’s team.

“It’s a massive year for Canada with the world junior in Montreal and Toronto,” McDavid said. “It’s almost surreal. But it’s a real opportunity and it’s going to take so much hard work.”

Canada will play four exhibition games this week, and when they’re done clashing with the Czech Republic on Friday afternoon, Groulx will have a better idea of the team he will have.

In theory, he knows what he wants.

“It’s all about attitude,” Groulx, an assistant coach with Canada last winter, said. “Talent is not enough. We have to know if they can play out of their comfort zone, if they can practise out of their comfort zone, if they can adapt to another style of hockey, how they connect on the ice, off the ice.

“We all know what people expect from us when we go into that tournament, because of what Canada has accomplished in the past. That success is behind us, but we have to get back to that. We have to get this good team in place.”

Juniors could use a little Finnish, Canada's head coach says

If Canada takes a page from Finland’s approach at the world junior a year ago, Benoit Groulx won’t have a problem with that.

“A team that is relentless, a team that is all in, a team that is tough to play against, that type of team,” Groulx, Canada’s head coach, said as Canada’s summer camp got underway with two practices on Sunday night at the Bell Sports Complex.

“We know how to play the game, and it’s up to us to bring that game back on the ice.”

Emulate the Finns? Surely, Groulx is joking. After all, Canadian teens set the pace at the world junior year after year.

Time was, that was true. But certainly not in the past half decade, with Canada failing to win gold since 2009 in Ottawa. Finland took the top medal last winter in Malmo, Sweden, and for Groulx, the path to gold for the Finns trailed back to Canada.

“I really feel they were copying us in the past,” Groulx said of other nations at the under-20 level in general.